Post navigation

This is one of three quilt tops I finished over the holidays. While Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts titled this pattern Ugly Christmas Sweaters, I just cannot find anything ugly about them.

I raided my Kona Cotton Solids stash and made a few changes to the color placement from the original pattern, but I love this quilt! You could add a wider border, but I like that the focus is on the sweater designs. I have chosen red binding to give it a little “pop”.

Lorna’s current quilt-along is Have a Jolly Little Christmas. Click the link below to find out more about this very sweet holiday quilt. I would love to join the quilt-along, but have already committed myself to several projects this year.

I don’t think anyone will forget the emotional toll that 2016 took on so many people in the United States. From natural disasters, hate crimes, animal abuse, and, yes, our presidential election. It is so easy to look at situations and only see the bad, and there was a huge amount of bad in 2016. But out of the bad can come compassion, acceptance of others, change, growth, and love.

I haven’t been active on my blog this year because of two relapses with Chronic Lyme disease. It has been a physically and emotionally draining battle. But, I am so thankful for the opportunities presented via Facebook and Instagram to give me a purpose outside of my family to motivate me to not dwell on my situation but to focus on others that are hurting.

QUILTS FOR PULSE

After the shooting at the Pulse Night Club in Florida, the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild put out a call for rainbow heart blocks and quilts. Their initial goal was to have enough quilts for the survivors, victims’ families and first responders. They received hundreds of quilts and were able to share them with others touched by violence. Click here for the #quiltsforpulse Instagram feed to see the quilts.

The heart with flying geese blocks are a pattern by Anita from the Blooming Workshop blog. You can find the original pattern here: Heart with Flying Geese I increased the size of the block to 12″ so it would be the same as the rainbow heart pattern that was provided by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew. She has a tutorial for three different sizes of hearts which can be found here: Making Heart Blocks Multiple Sizes

QUITLS FOR PEACE

Not long after the shooting at Pulse, there was one in Dallas. The Dallas Modern Quilt Guild, The Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild, and The McKinney Modern Quilt Guild put out a call for blue heart blocks and quilts for survivors, victims, and first responders. They also received hundreds of quilts and have shared them with others. Many of the blocks sent to them contained police department badges and signatures from officers. Several of the members of my local Prairie Points Quilt Club have family and friends in service and I suggested we make blocks as a way of showing support and also to help them cope with the loss. As one member told me, “We are all family, no matter where they serve”. What a beautiful sentiment. The four quilts tops above are what we pieced and gave to the DMQG along with the supplies needed to finish the quilts.

Click on the guild names above to go to their Instagram accounts to read more about Quilts for Peace and their guilds. Click here to go to the #quiltsforpeace IG feed to see the beautiful quilts.

This Blue Hearts quilt was pieced using the leftover half-square triangles from the quilts our club made. When finished, it will go to one of our local police departments.

I used the #BigHeartBlock for Pulse tutorial by Julie at Jaybird Quilts as a starting point for the blocks. I changed it slightly to use more half-square triangles, as we had very little blue fabric yardage left over.

These are the blocks I stitched for the quilt along hosted by Lorna McMahon of Sew Fresh Quilts. Lorna’s pattern is wonderful and honestly, I don’t think the sweaters are ugly. I love that she used solids for the sweaters and was able to raid my Kona Cottons stash to make most of the sweaters. I finished the first 15 blocks before running out of Peapod (green) and Papaya (orange) and need to order a half-yard of each to finish the quilt top.

I followed the pattern cover design pretty closely except for changing some of the collar colors. I also pulled out my From Marti Michell templates and used them to cut the pieces for the 6″ sweater centers, the half-triangles of background fabric for the shoulder area, and to trim the sleeve connector pieces. They made stitching the diagonal seams quick and easy, plus there was no need to trim afterwards.